INDO NAGA TALKS: Impracticable Pragmatism? by Kaka D Iralu

According to Ravi’s interview with the local media, he had highlighted the following problems in the peace talks: That the Naga groups have not agreed to the Naga flag being placed under the Pan Naga body and to term the final agreement as Naga Yehzabo. He went on to say that the final agreement could be signed any day If the “Naga negotiators reciprocate with pragmatic flexibilities.”

What one would like to pose to Ravi and the Indian government is this: Can the national flag of a sovereign country be removed from its pedestal and be made to fly over a financial agreement? Secondly, can the Constitution of a sovereign country be used to symbolise an agreement between two nations? After all, the national flag of a country is not just a piece of cloth that can be hung anywhere or the Constitution of a country just another book that can be shelved into the Constitution of another country.

Let India and the whole world know that Nagas did not hoist their independent national flag on 14th August 1947 so that they could become a state under India or have a shared sovereignty with India. They have in fact, defended that hoisted flag with their blood and their tears for the past over 71 years. Do not therefore; insult Nagas by removing our national flag from its glorious pedestal and putting it under a Pan Naga umbrella or shelving our unique Constitution under another foreign Constitution. Let no negotiator try to negotiate the “un-negotiable” in the name of any “pragmatic flexibilities.”